Wind meters

I suppose since I touched on it in the Long Range Hunting forum, I could go into a little detail for those that are interested.
I've picked up a Skywatch (the brand) Meteos (the model) to try my hand at learning to compensate for the constant, unpleasant, screaming, Wyoming Wind.
The unit is a little smaller than the large Jon-E hand warmer and will easily fit into a shirt or coat pocket. There are only 2 buttons to contend with that are marked on the front, but sealed off from the elements. There's a removable top cap that covers the impeller blades to protect them in transit and the cap has a cheezy compass molded into it.
The unit gives max wind speed and current wind speed as the default, but if you push one of the front buttons, you'll get average wind speed as well. There's also a temperature readout and a wind chill function that really helped out when I wanted to feel sorry for myself and how cold I felt.
The unit has a tripod mount in the bottom and a large, easy to read display. I set the tripod up slightly higher than the gun and several feet away (on the up wind side) to try to get as uncontaminated of wind readings as possible. All in all, I'm very confident that with time and practice, my wind doping will impove as a result of having this along.

I also mentioned a model that was made by/for Radio Shack.
I don't belive it's currently being made, but what a nice little unit! This unit doesn't require being pointed into the wind either. There's an arrow on the top that you can point the direction you're shooting and a sort of digital clock face on the front of the unit that tells you which direction the wind is striking it from in relation to where it's pointed with the compass being divided into 16 directional possiblities. ie, west-southwest or south-southwest vs straight southwest. This is definately a hand held unit. There's no tripod mount, and even if you rig one up, the display is too small to read from much more than arms length.
At this point, I'm using the wind meter to get accurate wind speeds, judging wind direction and then pluggin the info into my laptop (PCB-18) for a shooting solution. Mostly I'm playing at this point (today it's about 19 degrees with 25mph winds) but I anticipate gophers trembling at the sound of my footsteps (4 wheeler, truck) by the end of summer.
Take care, Coyoter

The guy from EBay said it was no longer available, or maybe that's just the impression I got. Used, it set me back about $42 with "Buy it now" for $35+S&amp;H or I could have started with his $25 opening bid and taken my chances at auction. Having one now, I haven't asked at the local Radio Shack to see if they have them or can still get them.
One thing I forgot to mention in my initial post is that the Radio Shack model gives more instantanious readings. The Meteos has to spin up to speed when the wind gusts and often the wind is dying down by the time it gets up to speed. The Meteos will say that the last gust was 18mph and the R.S. model will say that it gusted to 22 because of the mechanism differance. The same is true during lulls where the Meteos slowly winds down too. I don't think that the differance is something that's of great effect in the field. I can't see having someone hold the meter and yell "now" when the 15mph wind you've compensated for hits the meter and yanking off an accurate shot.
Coyoter

I was able to get my hands on three of the RadioShack windmeters...it was easier said than done for sure. Anyway I'll list a couple for sale in the buy, sell, trade, section of this site. I'd let a couple of them go for $35.00 for: windmeter,shipping &amp; handling to the USA 48 states only.

I have a skywatch xplorer 1 that I carry every where in my trouser pocket it is the most basic model but does a good job.
Or did until it went through the washing machine!
It has full display but no readings when the prop turns.
There was no water inside so I am hoping I can reset it somehow (tried batteries out and back in again).